El-Wak Tragedy — A Nation In Mourning, Not A Playground For Politics

Ghana is in pain.

Young women, full of hope and ambition, walked into the El-Wak Stadium with dreams of serving their country. Some left in ambulances. Some never returned home at all. There are families tonight staring at empty beds, unfinished meals, and uniforms their daughters never got the chance to wear.

This was an avoidable tragedy — a disaster born of overcrowding, weak planning, and a failure to conduct the most basic risk assessment. A stampede should never be the price of patriotism. Death should never be the outcome of trying to secure honest employment. It is unacceptable, and the institutions responsible must not hide under bureaucracy or military mystique. When lives are lost on a military-operated facility, during a military-organised process, accountability cannot be optional.

But even in the middle of this national grief, something even more troubling has emerged:

the naked rush by certain opposition figures, commentators, and surrogates to weaponise this tragedy for political gain.

Barely hours after the stampede, while families were still identifying bodies and doctors were still fighting to save the injured, some voices — especially those who governed this country for eight years — were already on social media crafting blame, spinning narratives, and shamelessly directing public anger at a government barely a year old.

This behaviour is not only insensitive; it is dishonest.

For nearly a decade, these same political actors refused to open the doors of the security services to ordinary Ghanaians. While in power, they turned recruitment into a shadow operation — secret lists, selective invitations, party-based approvals — shutting out thousands of young people who deserved a fair chance. They never created open, transparent opportunities for national enlistment. They built a system where connections mattered more than merit, and where recruitment became yet another partisan tool.

And now, after refusing for eight years to give Ghanaian youth an equal opportunity, they have the audacity to blame others for the consequences of a mass recruitment they themselves never had the courage or integrity to conduct in the open.

This is not leadership.

This is opportunism dressed as outrage.

The tragedy at El-Wak was not caused by a government granting young people the chance to apply. It was caused by institutional lapses, operational negligence, and failures in planning within the structures responsible for organising the screening.

Turning this into a political blame game insults the dead, mocks the injured, and spits in the face of grieving families. When a nation mourns, those who seek power should show humility — not sharpen their tongues.

That is why this attempt to hijack the narrative, to twist national sorrow into cheap political ammunition, must be called out loudly and without hesitation. Ghana is tired of blame merchants who were silent about their own failings but loud about everyone else’s. The hypocrisy is suffocating.

This moment demands maturity, not malice.

Solutions, not slogans.

Responsibility, not recklessness.

The lessons from the El-Wak disaster echo those from the recent military helicopter crash: our systems are old, overstretched, and dangerously under-prepared. Modernisation is no longer optional. Retooling our armed forces is no longer a talking point — it is a national emergency. The same applies to our police, fire service, immigration, prisons, and every state institution whose work impacts the safety of citizens.

Risk assessment must become the heartbeat of public operations in this country.

We cannot keep losing lives because we refuse to plan.

We cannot keep burying young people because we fail to anticipate crowds, pressure, or danger.

Contractors, event organisers, government agencies, and security institutions must be held to higher standards — not after tragedy, but before it.

To the families who lost their daughters, the entire nation stands with you.

To the applicants traumatised by what they witnessed, your courage is not in vain.

To the thousands yet to undergo screening, do not be discouraged. Your dream is valid. Go forward when the process resumes, demand safety and order, and give your best.

And to those attempting to turn national pain into political propaganda — stop.

Ghana deserves better than your theatrics.

This is a moment for truth, compassion, accountability, and reform — not partisan pettiness.

El-Wak must become a turning point.

Not another tragic entry in our history, but a catalyst for the urgent rebuilding of our institutions, our safety culture, and our sense of national responsibility.

Ghana has cried enough.

Now Ghana must change.

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